Here’s Why Donald Trump Changed His Mind About Libel Laws

President-elect Donald Trump spent Tuesday morning angrily tweeting at the New York Times and broadcasting his cancellation of a planned meeting with the newspaper's editorial staff. Later in the day, though, he ultimately changed his mind and did meet with them, and Trump's meeting with the New York Times was liveblogged by reporters who also attended.

At the meeting Tuesday, Trump chastised reporters for "treating [him] very rough," according to a tweet from New York Times reporter Mike Grynbaum. To anyone with even a faint awareness of the relationship between Trump and the New York Times, the president-elect's behavior is unsurprising.

Apparently, Trump's opinions have shifted since his campaign. Grynbaum tweeted that the president-elect said, “You know, YOU might be sued a lot more.’ I said, You know, I hadn’t thought of that."

Of course, Trump would be wise to shut down any more talk of libel laws while he still can, considering his own track record. The Toronto Star compiled a list of 560 statements Trump made during his campaign that they deemed false.

Reporters can take solace in the fact that "opening up" libel laws — presumably, Trump meant making it easier to obtain a libel conviction — does not mean much on a federal level. Defamation, according to the Wall Street Journal, is largely a matter of state law, not federal law, and is primarily sculpted by judges deciding First Amendment cases.

Despite the scant legal avenues that Trump would actually have to alter libel law as president, his threats against freedom of the press should still be a serious cause for concern.